The Blue Moods of Spain, the debut release by Spain, feels like music you've known your whole life but never heard. A rich mesh of West Coast jazz, country blues, and soul is woven in with strikingly honest lyrics, which brings a soft, human warmth to the whole. The four-member group consists of bass and lead vocals by Josh Haden, Merle Podlewski on drums, and Ken Boudakian and Evan Hartzell on guitars.
Centering around Haden's lyrics and bassline (which Boudakian jokes as being "the Josh Haden Experience"), each member "decorates" it by elaborating through their own perception of the music, purposefully holding themselves back so as to complement the temperate feel it evokes.
Using vintage equipment throughout the recording, the band tells me they prefer a warm analog sound over state-of-the-art digital audio. Not surprising, since they insist most of their inspiration comes from old LPs, like James Brown, Miles Davis, John Lee Hooker, and the Velvet Underground.
Many of the songs revolve around the state of love in one respect or another. Says Podlewski, "Josh has a good knack for writing about love without being cliché. You can believe in what he's saying and have some emotional commitment." "I Lied" is, as Josh explains, "something I would have liked to have said to a girl who devastated me." Almost spitefully, he sings "Holding you in my arms/in the bed/God knows it feels so fine/I said I loved you...but I lied/I feel so dead inside/I couldn't love you if I tried." "Untitled #1" exemplifies the sensitivity and honesty that rings clearly throughout the album. It's slow, descending beat drives the simple, searching melody like a soft rain washing away memories.
In "Ray of Light", the slow blues feel is amplified by a wailing trumpet (Larry Cady) under the chorus, "Ray of light/Won't shine through/What can I do/Lord, what can I do." Clearly, a question which everyone can sympathize but few have the answers to. Similarly, "World of Blue" begins as a search for shelter in the familiarity of sadness and ends in a moody, layered violin/cello texture by Josh's sisters and band members of that dog, Petra and Tanya Haden.
Explaining that they can't define themselves in terms of a specific genre when asked to describe the Spain sound, the band offered, "Traditional American music. Slow music. Ballads." A fitting description of the albums nine songs - which flow together well and compliment the originality while maintaining an overall feel of Spain's blue moods.
